More and more people are watching TV via digital means. The internet has become huge for video streaming and this has led to the rise and dominance of a selective few subscription-video-on-demand services that stream TV shows, documentaries, movies and cartoons to a captive audience. These services are known as SVOD for short.

These services will continue to rise as the whole digital TV and video sector is forecast to make $42 billion in revenue worldwide by 2020, which is less than 4 years away. Demand is huge with upwards of 50% of consumers saying that they watch streamed and on-demand video content daily. Conservative estimates suggest that consumers spend 6 hours per week watching streamed TV and movies on-demand.

In fact, such is the interest in these SVOD services that 1 in 5 people even admit to watching longer content on their smartphones. Did you know that the average period that people actually spend watching TV and video on smartphones, tablets and laptops has increased by 3 hours per week between 2012 and 2015?

The top 3 mainstream SVOD players are Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Netflix is considered number one due to its original content, however it does come into criticism for its less available new releases. The interest in using SVOD services has also changed viewer behavior with binge watching a trend that has come to prominence as a result. 87% of SVOD users say they binge watch once a week at a minimum.

Yet, traditional TV is still strong, but it is reflected in the age demographic that it services with 82% of those in their 60s saying they watch it on a daily basis. Younger generations are turning away from traditional TV in favor of SVOD and 62% of 25 to 34 year olds say they cannot find anything to watch on traditional TV daily.

The trend for turning away from traditional TV is called ‘cord cutting’ and it specifically refers to viewers who are cutting their ties with cable TV services in favor of digital SVOD services. In 2015 almost half did so due to the high cost of cable. View this infographic created by Frame Your TV for more details.